Chapter 17
Chapter 17
RUBY DOUGLAS
Insecurity. The one word that never was a thing in my world.
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Living as an Omega in the Pack, constantly treated unfairly, and I grew used to having people point out the parts of me that weren’t so pleasant. I dared not imagine the acceptance of the people around me.
Why then did Gavin’s sudden snub hurt this badly?
I sniffled, wiped my tears, and rolled over in the worn–out sheets in my little bed.
“You’re not saying anything.” Evelyn hissed, already irritated by my silence, worried about my tears.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” I snapped, hoping to scare her off the subject with my tone and mood.
Well, it wouldn’t be Evelyn if she didn’t snap back, “At least don’t sob and act like you’re going through a heartbreak.”
“It’s not a heartbreak.”
Heartbreaks happened only to people in love and within walls of a relationship. I had none of that, just a desperate and shameless girl regretting her wantonness with a man who was completely out of her league.
Evelyn looked away from my swollen face only because she was going through the features on my phone. We never had phones, omegas were not permitted to keep phones because it was a distraction from chores. Having one, especially one identical to Louisa’s was a dream come true for both of us.
“Evelyn,” I called out rather softly, her attentive gaze speared mine, “Am I that horrible?”
“If this is about Norman Blu then there’s a whole lot of rumors flying around…”
“Gavin and I kissed.” Yeah, more than once.
Her eyes bulged out.
I knew right? As unbelievably as that sounded it wasn’t the kiss that bothered me. Last night wasn’t the first time we’d kissed. But it was the first time to have such intimacy only to have him withdraw and act all cold this morning.
“Let me guess, he had a little too much to drink at this party?”
Arrgh! Evelyn wasn’t helping. But the honesty in her question made me loathe myself the most. What if alcohol had taken hold of his judgment and he’d actually imagined I was Denise until he realized I wasn’t?
I spilled my guts on how it all started, from our first kiss down to how he pulled away last night and his cold shoulders this morning.
“I suggest you be open and ask him.”
I blanched. My best friend couldn’t be serious. Talk about what? I cringed, blushing to my toenails from just thinking about confronting Gavin about the previous night.
“Or you could act like you don’t have a memory of last night. That’ll ease your shame around him.”
Shame was the word. But this suggestion helped. But not completely, the fact that I repulsed Gavin made me wallow in self-
loathe.
“Do you think I smelt terribly?”
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Chapter 17
“Sup, okay?” She sucked in a breath, “I don’t imagine that’s the case here. He probably was drunk and realized what getting involved with an Omega could end up in so he backed away”
Now that made sense.
“He can’t have his heir from an Omega” Evelyn was making a lot of sense.
But what was that odd expression on his face?
It’s best if you two talk. 1 know it’ll be painful but you deserve to know.”
I didn’t want to know. What if he confirmed my nightmare that I smelled, or my vag was horrible?
1 shook the thoughts from my mind even though they came back haunting me when I returned to the mansion and was consumed by my thoughts all through the day.
Gavin returned to the mansion around four p.m., Hannah led me to his home office a few minutes later, and my eyes sought him behind his desk, drowning in work. I gulped, held my breath, and planted myself by the door when Hannah bowed and exed the office,
Drew smiled cheerfully at me above the computer before him on the coffee table, beckoning I sat beside him on the sofa.
If only he understood how embarrassed I felt standing here. How much I wished to be anywhere but in the same space with King Gavin Ackerman.
Gavin looked away from his computer, reached for the notepad I gave Drew a few nights ago, and tossed it at the edge of his desk. His sardonic gaze straight at me.
“What the fuck is this?” He cocked his chin to my scribbles, eyes cold.
I officially became scared but edged closer, lifting the notepad in my sweaty palms. Heartbeat in full rampage.
The symbols on the notepad were something he couldn’t read because I only wrote down what would help me remember each of the twelve elders‘ thoughts and of course Nathan’s. My first task turned into a nightmare.
I was just clumsy with everything.
“You had just one fuckin‘ job and you messed it all up!”
“You’ve not even asked me if I can read them!” My irritation made my voice rise.
“Ruby… Drew warned, “Pardon her, Your Majesty, she probably…”
“Get the fuck out of here!” He scowled.
Drew gathered a few folders and turned towards the door, pausing before me to whisper, “Bite your tongue, please.”
With Drew gone from the office and his last words, my guards seeped out of me. I just met Gavin and wasn’t completely sure of how this brute King would react to being challenged.
If Nathan grew nervous before him then I’d acted too boldly already.
“I’ll read them, all of the thoughts. I couldn’t spell out the words so I thought to…”
“You’re plainly useless.”
His words stabbed me straight in the heart, way deeper than he would ever know.
Tears were the first sign of weakness and they welled up in my eyes before I could shake off Gavin’s words.
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Chapter 17
Suck it! It’s not the first time or the hundredth time I’ve ever been called useless. So suck it up!
I chide myself.
“My apologies if I disappoint you, Your Majesty.”
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I fought the growing need to sniffle. Without being told, I started reading the things I seribbled down at the meeting two nights ago, scribbles that looked more like hieroglyphs than English letters.
A knock on his office door interrupted me. The sudden distraction gave me a chance to sniffle. Denise waltzed into the office looking all sophisticated and feminine, I realized I’d made a complete mockery of myself for thinking Gavin was in any way attracted to me.
